and without the least affectation. However, such powers as God has given to me I am prepared to employ, not only with my pen, but viva voce, in defence of those great truths to which I stand pledged; and which constitute the basis of our hopes, and the consolation of our hearts.

The subject proposed for discussion by Mr. Barker, and accepted by me, is," What is a Christian, and what are his Principles?" Of course I understand it to mean a true Christian; for that understanding appears to be essential to the very existence of the debate. I regard the term Christian, as commonly understood, to be a designation of profession, and not of character. It appears to have been thus employed both by sacred writers, and also by profane writers. It is said in Acts xi. 26, "And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." Some, I know, suppose that the disciples gave that name to themselves under divine direction; but I think that cannot be correct, because it is not the appellation which is commonly assigned to the followers of Christ in the New Testament. Saints, Brethren, Disciples, and Believers, are the common appellations which were given to the followers of Christ. But it is a well-known fact that the people of Antioch were much addicted to scurrilous jesting; and as the disciples of our Saviour were objects of reproach and contumely, it is probable that the name was assigned to them as expressive of reproach and contempt. The term is employed, I believe, in only two other places in the New Testament. In Acts xxvi. 28, Agrippa says to Paul,-" Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian." Agrippa did not understand the nature of experimental piety; nor is it rational to suppose that he made any reference to it. But Agrippa knew that there was a sect of people called Christians; and having listened to the eloquent and powerful description which the apostle had given of his own conversion, he beheld such striking evidence of the divine origin of the Christian religion that he says,"Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian;" that is, to renounce Judaism, and to embrace the profession of the Christian faith. Peter uses the term Christian in his first epistle, the 4th chapter and the 16th verse. He says, "If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on his behalf." It appears, that there the term is introduced as an expression of reproach employed by the enemies of Christ and of his followers; and St. Peter says, in a preceding passage,-"If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified." Thus, it appears that the term Christian was employed, at first as a designation of profession, and not of character; and we find it thus used by Pliny in

his 97th letter to Trajan; by Tacitus, in his Life of Nero; and by Suetonius also it was employed in the same sense-as a designation of profession.

I therefore understand that the subject of discussion is― "What is a true Christian ?"-and I thus stated the subject in my tract when I consented to meet Mr. Barker in discussion.

It cannot be expected that I should, in my first address, minutely portray all the features of the Christian character. I shall therefore call attention, at present, to a few great principles by which the Christian is distinguished. And I remark that a Christian, in the first place, is one who believes in the doctrines and truths which God has revealed in the Christian economy. In the second place, that a Christian is one who conforms to the requirements which God has enjoined in the Christian Revelation. In the third place, that a Christian is one who enjoys the blessings which God offers in the Christian Revelation. Now, these three propositions include generally what I conceive to be a Christian; and furnish an answer to the question-"What is a Christian?"

But I shall endeavour to amplify them to some extent. I say a Christian, then, is a man who believes in the truths and doctrines which God has revealed in the Christian dispensation.

Man fell by unbelief; he must be restored by faith. Man fell by transferring his confidence from his Creator to a cruel and malignant spirit-the Tempter-the Prince of darkness; and man must be restored by placing his confidence in God, and those great truths which God has revealed for man's enlightenment and salvation. The Scriptures are emphatic and decisive in declaring the vital importance of faith. They describe it as essential to the formation of the Christian character as an indispensable condition of our receiving the blessings of salvation, and as the very foundation of every virtue of every holy principle. Indeed the very name by which a Christian is commonly distinguished is expressive of his faith. What is he called? A believer. A believer in what? Not in human systems of philosophy. There is no reference to them. But a believer in the glorious Gospel-in those truths which heaven has revealed to man. While, on the other hand, he who rejects those truths and doctrines is appropriately designated an unbeliever. The very announcement of the Gospel message is combined with an absolute requirement of faith in its teachings. In Mark i. 15, we find these words :---" Repent ye, and believe the Gospel"—believe the Gospel. In the great commission which our blessed Lord gave to his disciples to go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature, we have faith placed before us in the same prominent and important aspect, as a duty imperative upon all; and as a duty so vitally

important and essential, that man's eternal destiny is made to hinge upon the peformance of that duty. In the 16th chapter of Mark, and 15th verse it is said," He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved: but he that believeth not shall be damned." And when the apostle Paul in adverting to certain characters who, instead of receiving and believing the Gospel, reject it, or pervert it, he utters these solemn words, "That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness." Such is the importance which God himself has attached to faith. Without it, no man can be a Christian. Without it, we cannot enjoy the blessing of the Gospel. Without it, we must eternally perish, "He that believeth not, shall be damned."

I further remark, as another principle of the Christian's character, That this faith in the Christian is ever combined with an humble, a teachable, a truth-loving disposition. It is because he is conscious of his wretchedness and guilt that he utters the anxious enquiry, "What must I do to be saved?" It is because he is convinced of his own ignorance in the things of God that he applies to the sacred oracles, humbly saying, "Speak, Lord! for thy servant heareth." And it is because he honestly loves truth that he implicitly submits his understanding and his heart to its dictates and requirements. And such a mind is prepared for the reception of the truth. Such a mind will ever be aided by the Holy Spirit in its enquiries after the truth; and, having found the blessed treasure, will hold it fast, and bring forth fruit unto perfection. These dispositions, in fact, are a soil in which the seed of truth will vegetate, and take root, and spring up and bear fruit to God's glory, thirty, sixty, and a hundred-fold. But the unbeliever, on the other hand, is proud and unsubdued; vain of his own powers, and confident in his own decisions. He leans to his own understanding, and is wise above what is written; and as a natural consequence of his self-sufficiency, his reverence for revealed truth will sink just in proportion to the height of his confidence in his own powers, and his dependence upon his own sufficiency. Hence it follows that when the teachings of the Bible clash with his own judgment, he will be found either to reject its inspiration, or to employ the arts of sophistry to pervert its meaning. (“Hear, hear,” “Order,” and disapprobation.) Such a man may designate himself a true Christian, but he certainly has no claim to that distinguishing and honourable appellation. He is either fatally deceiving himself, or else he is an imposter, and is artfully deceiving others. Nor can the truth dwell in a mind like that. The morbid state of the heart forbids its admission there. His pride of intellect-his vain confidence and self-sufficiency, will most certainly originate sentiments and opinions at vari

ance with the truth of God. And here commences the confli betwixt the errors of man and the truth of the Gospel :conflict which will last until the sinner is either subdued destroyed; for the Word of God cannot be broken. It is rock of eternal adamant ; and they who fall upon it, will b broken; but they on whom it shall fall, will be ground int powder.

Now it is this pride and perversity of heart which has caused the Gospel to be rejected by some, and to be perverted by others, in every age of the world. It was this pride and perverseness of heart which caused the Gospel to be a stumblingblock to the Jews, and foolishness to the proud and speculalative Greeks. It was this pride and perversity of heart which caused the Pharisees and Sadducees not to receive the glad tidings of salvation when announced in the accents of the Redeemer, who came to save the world from darkness and guilt. It was not because they had not light; for they walked amidst the noontide splendour of the Redeemer's ministry. It was not because they had not evidence; for they were surrounded by the glorious manifestations of the Son of God. They heard him speak, and beheld the leper cleansed, They saw his touch, and beheld the dead arise. They heard his voice, and demons were silenced, or confessed his heavenly mission to the world. They beheld him feed five thousand with a few loaves and fishes; and yet, notwithstanding all these splendid manifestations of the Saviour's power, and of his mission being divine, they continued in unbelief, and ascribed his miracles to a diabolical agency. Though confounded, they would not be convinced, but pertinaciously asked for a sign. Though earth, and hell, and heaven combined to attest the divinity of the Redeemer's mission and of his doctrines, they would not believe, but asked for a sign. And it was just the same pride and perversity of heart which prevented Saul of Tarsus from receiving the Gospel for a period. Yes! while he was proud and unsubdued, he continued in ignorance and unbelief. And yet it was not for want of natural sagacity; the epistles of Paul evince intellectual power. It was not through want of literature; he had sat at the feet of Gamaliel. It was not for want of revealed means to find the truth, for he had the ample pages of prophecy before him, pointing out and characterizing the person, the work, and the death of the glorious Redeemer. It was not for want of the evidence which accompanied the preaching of the truth; for he witnessed the miracles of the apostles of our Saviour, and he beheld practical demonstration of the divine power of the Christian religion. He held the clothes of those who imbued their hands in the innocent blood of the murdered Stephen. He gazed upon the countenance which shone with brightness

like that of an angel. He saw the martyr's calm and dignified countenance, which nothing but the strength, the purity, and the power of true religion could light up. He beheld the meekness, the self-denial, the spiritual-mindedness and love of the dying saint employing his latest moments in prayer for his murderers. And yet amidst all these evidences of the truth of the Christian religion, and these manifestations of its vital power, he could continue glutting his savage heart with the martyr's blood. But when Saul of Tarsus assumed a new position-when he fell to the earth, and uttered the enquiry,— What wilt thou have me to do ?"-then the scales fell from his intellectual vision as well as his bodily sight; and he beheld the glory of the Lamb of God. He perceived the attractions of the true Messiah; he beheld the evidence of the divine origin of our religion; and He who before was the object of his contempt, and whose doctrines he sought to extirpate by persecution and blood, became the sole object that filled the orb of his vision, and became the grand centre of attraction around which his affections revolved, and to whom his life was henceforth devoted. There must be, I say, an humble spirit-a teachable disposition; there must be a love for the truth of God, or that truth can seldom be perceived by the intellect-can never be cherished and welcomed by the affections. And the heart that is not thus humble can never be actuated and guided by the Holy Spirit which is essential to inspire conviction, and to give power to the truth. "Even so, righteous Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight: because thou hast revealed these things unto babes, and hast hid them from the wise and prudent." Matt. xi. 26.

For

I further remark, that the Christian does not except from his creed any truth or doctrine on the ground of its being "unimportant;" though there are those who do so. example, with regard to the miraculous conception, it is rejected, and then it is stated that the doctrine is unimportant. I do not wish to make personal allusions. I am grappling with great principles; and if my remarks appear to tend that way, I hope the audience will not suppose I am under the influence of any emotion that has the least approach to vindictiveness or impropriety of feeling. But I must speak plain truths, no matter what may be their application. Now I say that this involves one of two fallacies-either that because a doctrine is unimportant, it is untrue; or else, that because an individual conceives a doctrine to be unimportant, he has a right to reject it; and, of course, as he makes himself the supreme judge in that case as to what is important, and what is not important, he assumes to himself the right of rejecting from God's word whatever he may please. That is the principle involved. Now this is but a thin pretext of infidelity; and